Wife Of Bath's Tale

Who is superior, man or woman? In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, situated in the 14th century, at this point in time there was a big difference in society between man and woman. Woman used to be the housekeepers, and did not have any independence from men. This aspect has been changing over the time as we get closer to the 21st century, women have been gaining respect and equality similar to men, and nowadays women can have the same jobs that men have.

The wife of bath is meant to uphold the misogynist ideas of her time. When the Canterbury tales, were written society's

In the Canterbury Tales, “The Wife of Bath and The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”, have a really ridiculous message and highly focus on a stereotypical woman and praise it. It’s strange and surprising how the characters within the marriage debate portray viewpoints that align with today’s differing thoughts on marriage. True love was often separate from marriage during the Middle Ages. Chaucer used this idea to satirize what the people of his time had allowed marriage to become. He also encouraged people to defy the commonly accepted arranged marriage and sought true love, instead of what his character he made to mock and make fun of. The Wife of Bath’s ideas and principles about marriage are no better than a gold digger’s intention, at the time opposing the medieval Catholic church, and search for sovereignty in a relationship.

Chaucer uses characterization and conflict to develop The Wife of Bath’s tale and her theme in the “Canterbury Tales”. Throughout these tales, The Seven Deadly Sins are present in each short story. The Wife of Bath’s Story is a very Lustful and Prideful story. Which also contains parts of Covetousness through the story, which all three sins conveniently go hand in hand.

Written in the 1380’s, The Canterbury Tales is considered one of the greatest works of English literature. Chaucer joins a group of 29 pilgrims on a journey to the Cathedral in Canterbury, England. Along the way, readers learn the life of each pilgrim along with interesting stories. The story begins with the General Prologue and continues with the tales told by each pilgrim on the pilgrimage. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is an intriguing story that displays a uniqueness in the way that it is written, the audience it is written to, and the theme that the story focuses on.

that he never went to hell (272). She clearly valued sex as the most important attribute of a husband for, “…in our bed he was so fresh and gay….Heaven knows whenever he wanted it- my belle chose-, thought he had beaten me in every bone…”(272) Even though her final husband had beaten her, because he was good in bed with her she felt she loved him the best of them all (272). Clearly, The Wife of Bath valued three things in her marriages, sex, power, and money. In her tale we find that power is an important role to women in marriage. A knight, after raping a women is spared by a queen (282) but in order to save his life, he has one year (283) to find, “What is the thing that women most desire”(282)? After searching, he finds no answer but on his way home finds an old women who promises she will save him, he must promise to do what she asks of him after however, and he agrees (285). When he and the old lady meet with the queen, he exclaimed, “A women want’s the self-sovereignty over her husband as over her lover, and master him; he must not be above her” (286). This answer is perfectly inline with The Wife of Baths views, she always wants to be more powerful than her husband. When the old lady says he must marry her, he protests but soon she offers him two choices, he can have her be old and ugly till she dies, but loyal, or she can be young and pretty and take chance that she might not remain faithful (291). He gives his answer to be that she may choose, thus giving her the

The Wife of Bath starts her prologue degrading the Friar and how he does not treat women well. Then she starts “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, in which she talks about the story of a young knight who sexual assaulted a young lady. The young knight was about to get executed by King Arthur when the Queen decided to help the knight out and save him if he could tell her what women truly wanted. The knight left to go on his hunt for exactly what the women wanted. He asked many women and they came up many different things each of them wanted. One day the knight ran across a foul, old lady. This old lady said she knew exactly what all women wanted and she would tell him if he promised to do whatever she pleased when the time came. The older lady told the

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer gives multiple examples in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” of Alice, The Wife, intellectually manipulating her husbands, which portray her as a rebel against female norms of her day and a trailblazer for women going forward. However, there are some incredibly conflicting aspects of the Wife of Bath’s portrayal of women. Certainly, it can be said The Wife of Bath’s Alice was far ahead of her time. In a period when men ruled and women were expected to be subservient, she was the rare exception. She contradicted all the norms of the day and even at times seemed to contradict herself.

At the beginning of the tale there were mixed feelings and theories on what women really wanted. Some people said money. Some people said clothes. At the end of the day what women seek from a man's point of view is control.

A women’s most precious desire is to be treated equally. In the Wife of Bath’s tale, a Knight rapes a maiden. The women are very upset and feel powerless. The Queen finds out and tells the Knight that he has twelve months and a day to discover what women desire the most or he will be sentenced to death. He begins the search by going house to house asking women what they desire the most.

In the Wife of Bath’s tale women are not treated equally to men, yet are not entirely undervalued as long as they hold a lofty position in society such as a queen. After King Arthurs court has decreed that the knight is to be put to death, he withdraws this decision in favor of listening to his wife’s advice. In contrast, the hag, who holds a much lower place in the caste system, is not treated with respect until it is revealed that she can help the knight with his quest. Even after she saves his life with her advice, he is quite open with the fact that he is miserable spending his life with an ugly old woman. While he seems to appreciate her intellect and craftiness, he cannot look past her physical appearance, which is the main trait of which

The Wife of Bath’s Tale revealed a woman using her lovemaking to go after rich men and to gain control of her husbands’ wealth. Not only has she seen many lands, she has lived with five husbands. She is knowledgeable in both senses of the word: she has seen the world and has experience in the ways of the world, that is, in love and sex. Many consider Wife of Bath’s as a filthy woman and the way she establishes herself as an authority on marriage, however; the readers do not see the conflict with economic welfare for her family, the security they need, and the learning process to educate daughters to grow up properly. Being a twelve years old girl is not acknowledging as a woman. Why can’t she have her own ways to satisfied what she wants?

After reading ‘The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale’ I can see clear indications and agree that Chaucer was an anti-feminist’ by studying in depth both the prologue and tale I am going to show how Chaucer conforms to a patriarchal perspective in which he believes women are inferior to men making them the weak and unstable sex, who are neither socially, politically or economically equal to a man.

In the “The Wife of the Bath,” it expressed the different areas for the theme of the story to be feminism. Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. In this prologue, the tale consisted of a woman who engaged into multiple marriages in which lasted unsuccessfully. This story reveals how feminist icons influence other groups of women to become a supportive advocate. The Wife of the Bath conveys the theme of this tale to represent power in feminism. The character plays an important role of being an advocate to women’s rights. In this essay, the reader will be able to identify how Alyson (Wife of the Bath) is a feminist icon in this part of the Canterbury Tales.

In Geoffrey Chaucer's “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” lines 956 though 988, the Wife of Bath tells the tale of Midas in a way to explain that women can hide nothing. In the Wife’s version of the tale Midas was hiding his two ass’s ears beneath his long hair to the best of his abilities. However, Midas did not attempt to keep this secret from his wife. He confided in her because he loved her most, and trusted her most. Midas begged and prayed to his wife that she tell no creature about his disfigurement. His wife in turn swore to him that she would not dishonor his trust, or sin, in order to save her husband's and her own reputation and name. However, from keeping such a large secret the Wife believed she would die if she did